Another Reason Belgium Is So "Cute"

There are three companies that run the public transportation here in Brussels. STIB/MIVB ("Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles" in French and "Maatschappij voor het Intercommunaal Vervoer te Brussel" in Dutch) run the two subway lines, the above-ground trams and some buses. These two companies pretty much just handle Brussels, though some of their buses go outside of the city. Then there is De Lijn which is the country-wide bus company. They run the rest of the buses in Brussels and in every other city in Belgium. And, finally, there's the train company, SNCB/NMBS ("Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges" and/or "Nationale Maatschappij Belgische Spoorwegen"). They manage the entire Belgian train network.

Today the Metro/Tram company is on strike. That means no tram, no metro, and no STIB buses. We're not really sure why they are on strike because we don't understand the news sources, but I think they've been in negotiations with the government. I'm sure it's the same reason most strikes happen: pay raise issues and better working conditions? Each of these three companies goes on strike a few times a year apparently, so it's not unusual. The funny thing about the strike is that they warn everyone a couple of days before and they announce how long the strike will be. We found out on Wednesday afternoon that they would go on strike today. Yesterday, they detailed it further by saying that the strike will last from 9:30am Friday to 9:30am Saturday.

You'd think a great deal of the impact of the strike is lost by warning everyone, but if you think about it, it's still an effective strike. While trying their best to not inconvenience the citizens of Brussels too much, they are still making an economic impact on the "suits" in the company because no fares are collected for 24 hours. If you think about how many people are riding the metro/tram/bus system every day, that's a lot of money!

I was "affected" by the strike because the bus I take to work is a STIB bus. So, I instead walked a lot farther than normal to get to a stop for one of the De Lijn buses that went to Zaventem. Took me a little over a half an hour to get there, same thing on the way back. Good exercise though and the weather's not too bad at the moment. It was actually kind of nice, though mildly inconvenient. Gave me an excuse to get a little exercise!

-RP-